Redcap's Corner Pathfinder

Sewer's Folly

A bright summer morning in Baltis, with everyone in a good mood until the drains start spraying backed up sewage. Looks like a job for the Mithral Guard!?

All available Initiates were brought into Asima Rehant’s quarters, and the best, of course, picked to escort the Heth worker Borvis Bavadon through Baltis’ labyrinthine sewers to find, and if possible fix the problem.

Wasting no time, Kijiki, Kanut, Rogadanar, Sir Naqala and Elias descended into the sewer tunnels, and began digging for the trouble. It wasn’t long before they found a collapsed wall, with water running through from an aquafer, the rocks around the collapse covered in a thick viscous slime.

In a nearby storage room the Guardsmen found 4 Otyughs, artfully arranging their garbage and/or food. One Otyugh had split from the others, claiming they no longer shared the same priorities, and the other three encouraged the Initiates to “take care” of their estranged friend in exchange for a gold box they had been given by some “new friends”.

After some discussion, the group decided the group of 3 Otyughs were shadier than the other, especially since they were standing in the way of a door they insisted “led nowhere important”. Sir led the charge, and the battle was soon over, the 3 Otyughs taunting the Initiates as they dragged away the unconscious and battered Sir.

After swallowing some healing potions, the Mithral Guardsmen went in search of another entrance to the blocked room. As they walked they chatted with Borvis, and learned he’d been working the past 7 years to earn money to move his family from the tent cities outside the Baltis military quarters into the city proper where he hoped to retire.

After wandering a few hours through the maze of tunnels, the group was ambushed by Darkmantles, and although they made quick work of the beasts, Borvis was badly mauled and killed. To make matters worse during the fight a sickly Choker emerged from the sewer water, covered in the same slime the Initiates had first found near the Otyughs’ lair, and dragged Rogadanar into the water, nearly drowning him to death before being beheaded by Sir. After the combat Sir, believing the Sewers were a death trap, began to call for a retreat, but was overruled and begrudgingly continued.

And just ahead it seemed a cause of the sewer backups was apparent, as a shoddily constructed dam came into view, redirecting significant waterflow into an overflow and drainage tunnel. Sir and Rogadanar remained at the dam with Borvis’ body, while Kijiki, Kamut, and Elias climbed into the small tunnel to investigate. Wading through the waste-deep filth, they spied more Chokers, again covered in slime, but these healthier, and partly transformed, bearing fins and scales; and raced ahead to kill them. The Chokers fled, and 100 feet further in the tunnel narrowed and the diminutive trio found themselves barely able to keep their heads above water.

Pressing on, Kamut’s keen darkvision let him see, far ahead in the tunnel, four of the scaly Chokers waited to defend a larger room, in which something huge and tentacled swam, peering into the dark tunnel with a malevelent eye the size of a grapefruit. After a brief whispered conversation, the trio turned back, rejoined their companions, and returned to the surface to report their findings.